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Sid Watkins, the doctor to the drivers

Prof. Sid Watkins (left) and Jackie Stewart were presented the Labatt's Safety Award at a ceremony in London in 1992. COURTESY, PROF. SID WATKINS

By Norris McDonaldMotorsport Writer

Fri., April 22, 2011

So I was talking to the “doctor to the drivers,” Prof. Sid Watkins — about safety in Formula One, his induction into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame at a gala celebration Saturday night and whether Sebastien Vettel is as good as everybody thinks he is, all sorts of things, actually — when he suddenly said:

“Let me tell you about Nelson Piquet. Now, there was a naughty boy.”

The context was this: Who, in Grand Prix racing today, is a really good bloke? Who’s got the best sense of humour? Who’s a cut-up?

And Watkins had replied, after thinking for a moment: “Barrichello, I suppose, is the most fun. He’s the one who’s usually up to the most mischief these days. But none of them holds a candle to Piquet.”

Nelson Piquet won three world championships but is remembered almost as much for being a practical joker. Watkins remembers two incidents as if they happened yesterday, instead of in the 1980s.

“One time, the FIA president, Jean-Marie Balestre, was making an important speech on safety,” Watkins said. “As he was talking, Piquet was standing beside him, emptying a litre of carbonated water into the pocket of his suit jacket.

“Another time, Balestre was standing near the front row of the grid. Piquet was standing behind him. Suddenly, a hand came up between his legs and grabbed him by the presidential balls!

“But Balestre wasn’t angry; he thoroughly enjoyed Piquet because he made people laugh.”

I was interviewing Watkins, of London, in advance of the gala at the On The Park Convention Centre, in which he and Bobby Rahal, of New Albany, Ohio, will be inducted into the International Category of the Hall for their contributions to motor racing in Canada.

In addition, eight others will be inducted into the domestic category and they include:

Roger Peart of Mississauga, who is president of ASN Canada FIA , designer of the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal and National Steward of the Canadian Grand Prix, among many other things.

Paul Cooke of Toronto, vice-president of ASN Canada FIA, who is being honoured for his outstanding contribution to the development, sustainability and safety of motorsport in this country.

Jacques Duval of Montreal, for sports car racing.

Bob Elliott of Wingham and Herb Rodgers of London for drag racing.

Jean Theoret of Valleyfield, Que., John Webster of Scarborough and Norm Woods of Bracebridge for boat racing.

Watkins, along with Dr. Hugh Scully of Toronto and American doctors Steve Olvey and Terry Trammel are generally credited — particularly Watkins — with the huge improvements in safety over the last half-century in which world-class motor racing went from a highly dangerous pursuit to one that, today, is relatively safe.

And so I put it to the professor: what is the big difference between racing in the 1950s and ’60s, when many drivers were killed, and today? Is it the HANS device? Circuit design? What?

“There are two factors that you can’t separate,” he said. “First are the improvements made in the construction of the car. The actual technique and materials used to construct the monocoque — carbon fibre, for instance — have saved many lives.

“The other is the control of fire. When I started in the 1960s, fire was a constant danger. In the Seventies, there was a fire at the Peterson accident (when Ronnie Peterson died at Monza), and Niki Lauda was badly burned (at the Nurburgring).

“There was a fire at the Paletti accident in 1982 (at the start of the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal, in which Riccardo Paletti was killed) and then there was a fire at Imola with Gerhard Berger in 1989.

“But since then, we haven’t had a problem with fuel fires and that’s been an enormous step forward.”

Watkins made mention of “starting in the 1960s,” when he was a surgeon at University Hospital in Syracuse, N.Y.

“I used to go to the Can-Am races at Watkins Glen, the SCCA races there and, of course, the Grand Prix,” he said. “The facilities were pretty primitive.

“For the Grand Prix, I used to take a team, just in case we had any bad trouble. I used to take an orthopedic surgeon, a chest guy, a plastic surgeon and an anesthetist. We used to take our own kit, just in case, because there was virtually no equipment in the medical centre at Watkins Glen. You brought your own stuff and you took it away.

“We were put to the test on more than one occasion. It was a good thing we were there.”

It was during that period when he would travel to Mosport and Le Circuit-St. Jovite to enjoy the races — “I went as a spectator” — and it was there that he met “my great friend,” Dr. Scully, who was founder of the Ontario Race Physicians safety group that still operates today.

They’ve made a great team since, and Scully will represent Watkins at the gala, who is forced to remain in Britain because of ill health.

I asked Watkins if it was harder to drive a racing car in the “old days” as compared to today.

“I think it’s different,” he said. “In the old days, they had physical demands. There was a general lack of security . . . it was a different level of driving. Nowadays, they’re extremely well protected; there’s so much automatic function on the cars . . . they’re really projectiles.

“In Clark’s and Stewart’s time, the mortality rate was pretty high. You had to have enormous courage to go racing every other weekend, knowing that you might not come back. Since 1994, we’ve been extremely fortunate (there hasn’t been a fatal accident in F1 since) and I don’t think the drivers even think about that anymore. It’s out of mind.”

Watkins laughed when I asked whether Sebastien Vettel is the “real deal,” as good as Jim Clark was in his era and Michael Schumacher has been in recent years.

“He’s obviously a wonderful driver but” (the professor’s voice rose here) “he’s also got a wonderful car. If you want to talk about drivers in poor cars, think of Stirling Moss, who drove all sorts of vehicles and drove them extraordinarily well, particularly when they weren’t the fastest.

“It’s a different dimension, really. People like Senna could make a bad car go quick. And so could Jimmy.

“Recently, we’ve seen Michael struggling. If you put Michael in the Red Bull, he’d be away like a shot! So we don’t know about Vettel because we haven’t seen him in a bad car yet.”

• Profiles of the other inductees can be found attached to this column at wheels.ca

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